Collapse is fatal to swimmer in race
Athlete overcome at Cohasset event
COHASSET -- A 38-year-old man died yesterday after collapsing while swimming in the first leg of this South Shore town's first triathlon.
Neither local officials nor the race's organizers would identify the victim or explain how he died.
"We're not able to discuss any details at this time in consideration of the family," Bill Burnett, director of the Cohasset Triathlon at Sandy Beach, said in a statement. "Our prayers are with the athlete's family on this tragic day."
Fire Department officials said paramedics treated six people for unspecified injuries from the race. They took three people in ambulances to South Shore Hospital in South Weymouth but would not identify them.
Edwin Carr, vice chairman of the Board of Selectmen, said the board plans to review whether another race should be held next year.
"From the town's perspective, we share in the grief that the family must be going through and, of course, send our condolences," he said.
More than 700 people registered for the triathlon, which consisted of a quarter-mile swim in a cove off Sandy Beach, in water no deeper than 9 feet; a 12.5-mile bike course through the winding roads and along the rocky cliffs of Cohasset and North Scituate; and a 3.2-mile run that looped around Little Harbor.
The event drew first-time triathletes and more experienced participants, organizers said. They said they did not know the experience level of the man who died.
The race began at 8 a.m. yesterday, with clear skies, a light wind, and temperatures in the 70s, Burnett said after the race as he packed tables into a rented truck. He had spent about nine months organizing the race, which raised over $45,000 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
"I had so many people come up and say what a great race it was," he said, but added that the successful fund-raising was "tempered by this tragedy." He could not provide any more information last night.
Neither the town's harbormaster nor police would comment yesterday.
Katie Dolaher of Quincy , the manager of Sandy Beach, said the association that oversees the beach declined to provide lifeguards for the event, in part because of liability issues.
"Seven hundred people on a quarter-mile-long beach, that's a lot," Dolaher said. "They're overexerting their bodies all at once in the water; that's a huge liability."
The beach usually has four to five lifeguards working on a busy summer day, when more than 300 people typically visit, she said. Event organizers yesterday provided their own lifeguards.
Susan O'Brien of Cohasset said she watched the swim race, which was set up around two buoys lined up offshore. She said the harbormaster's boat and about a half-dozen lifeguards on rescue boards and in kayaks were floating nearby.
She said the swim seemed to be going fine until some participants passed the second marker, where a swimmer began having trouble. She said she saw other swimmers try to help him and then a lifeguard on a rescue board approached to assist.
O'Brien said the harbormaster's boat came, pulled the triathlete out of the water, and brought him to shore, where emergency medical workers began preparing to take him away in an ambulance. She said rescuers in the boat had appeared to perform CPR on the man.
Meanwhile, she said, a second swimmer began to falter. The harbormaster's boat went to the rescue, leaving the first injured swimmer with paramedics, she said.
The second swimmer appeared to fare better and was sitting up in the boat while being taken to shore. That swimmer, too, she said, was taken away in an ambulance.
"It really was a spectacle of sorts, having all of this going on at once. It was surreal," said O'Brien, a former manager of Sandy Beach. "I mean, it was really a sight. . . . It was a cheerful event. It was just very upsetting, really, to have any sort of tragedy."
O'Brien said she saw a third swimmer having trouble. In that case, a pleasure boat just outside the swimming area came to the rescue, scooping up the swimmer and bringing him to shore, she said.
She walked down the beach to the boat where the young man picked up by the private vessel was sitting. O'Brien said he appeared to be exhausted and overheated. O'Brien said a number of people near the back of the pack appeared to have difficulty finishing the swim portion of the event.
"A lot of people needed help getting to shore," she said.
O'Brien said the swimmers having difficulty may have been struggling with a combination of stress from the competition, wetsuits that trap body heat, and the cold water. She also said that the tide was beginning to go out when the leaders started the final leg of the swimming course, forcing all competitors to swim against the tide toward shore.
Michael Norton, 41, a triathlete from Cohasset who competed yesterday, said he did not experience anything unusual during the swim portion of the event .
Rob Simms, 52, who also completed the race, said conditions for the triathlon seemed ideal. He said the water wasn't overcrowded because swimmers left the beach in stages.
"The weather conditions were perfect," he said. "The water was calm, there was barely a ripple in the water."
Maria Cramer and Kevin Cullen of the Globe staff and correspondents John Guifoil and Courtney Brooks contributed to this article. David Abel can be reached at dabel@globe.com, Lisa Wangsness at lwangsness@globe.com. 